Gov's memoir & 'Reasons' to get on a plane

Reading an excerpt of Gov. Deval Patrick's memoir A Reason to Believe, I'm struck by a few things:

• How can any book, except by ones from James Patterson and his ilk, command a $1.3 million advance for the author? That's one reason the governor is going on a 17-day book tour — he needs to earn that advance. A publishing source told me that publishers make bets on stories like Patrick's, hoping the subsidiary rights, including foreign, audio, large print, and hey, maybe a movie, will pay off big. I never figured the rest of the country wanted to read something from our governor, but obviously the folks at Crown (a division of Random House) feel otherwise.

• If the publishing execs’ instincts are correct, it's because Patrick's story is indeed remarkable and "improbable." He vividly evokes without sentimentality his childhood in poverty raised by his grandparents in the South Side of Chicago. And as most of us know, he goes on to Milton Academy and Harvard. So the book is good, especially if the rest of the narrative is as well-written as the first chapter. Patrick's is a story that deserves to be told, and it's a bonus if it's told with some verve and candor about race and class. Hey, I’m sounding like I may actually buy a copy.

• Patrick is following the well-worn path of other governors for two decades plus before him: mentally vacating the job as they pursued other opportunities. Mike Dukakis, Bill Weld, Paul Cellucci, Mitt Romney, some more shameless than others, aggressively went after the next big thing, and the joke was on the rest of us who voted them in. (Romney perhaps was the most shameless, by the way.)

The governor is fanning out quickly — remember, he is only three months into his new term. A year ago, I was not alone in believing his reelection was improbable. Now he’s about to go on Oprah.